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From ASID: Eye on Design:
Smarter, Not Bigger, Is Better: Energy efficiency, flexible floor plans and outdoor living spaces top
prospective home buyers' list of essential features, courtesy of MarketWatch. Butler said her
magazine's reader panel identified four things consumers want in their next house:
1. They want a home that is able to accommodate their modern lifestyles. The most important
part of that home is the place where family and friends gather, the kitchen and the family room.
"Women, especially, want their home to be part of the solution and not part of the problem for
them," Butler said.
2. They want a home that is flexible for their future needs. Half of the readers on the panel under
the age of 43 said they were going to need a dedicated office at home in the coming years, as
more anticipate working full-time from the house.
One-third of the baby boomers on the panel said they anticipated that their house would have to
accommodate an aging parent who would move in in the future, and one-quarter said their house
would likely have to handle the return of an adult child.
3. They want a house that is "special for me." There has been a proliferation of specialty spaces
within homes where hobbies and activities take place, and those spaces need organization and
storage. Laundry rooms, mud rooms, family rooms and kitchens are all important areas where
special touches can go a long way in personalizing the space: built-ins in the family room,
restaurant-style cooking equipment in the kitchen, mud rooms with organizational centers and
laundry rooms with fold-away ironing boards among them.
4. They want green options.
What they don't want, necessarily, are bigger houses. The NAHB survey found that 58% of buyers
would rather have a smaller house with high-quality amenities than a bigger house with fewer
amenities. They also preferred a typical kitchen and living areas to an expanded kitchen at the
expense of other living spaces 63% to 37%. Nearly half of consumers said they would take a much
larger family room and do away with the living room.
Smarter, Not Bigger, Is Better: Energy efficiency, flexible floor plans and outdoor living spaces top
prospective home buyers' list of essential features, courtesy of MarketWatch. Butler said her
magazine's reader panel identified four things consumers want in their next house:
1. They want a home that is able to accommodate their modern lifestyles. The most important
part of that home is the place where family and friends gather, the kitchen and the family room.
"Women, especially, want their home to be part of the solution and not part of the problem for
them," Butler said.
2. They want a home that is flexible for their future needs. Half of the readers on the panel under
the age of 43 said they were going to need a dedicated office at home in the coming years, as
more anticipate working full-time from the house.
One-third of the baby boomers on the panel said they anticipated that their house would have to
accommodate an aging parent who would move in in the future, and one-quarter said their house
would likely have to handle the return of an adult child.
3. They want a house that is "special for me." There has been a proliferation of specialty spaces
within homes where hobbies and activities take place, and those spaces need organization and
storage. Laundry rooms, mud rooms, family rooms and kitchens are all important areas where
special touches can go a long way in personalizing the space: built-ins in the family room,
restaurant-style cooking equipment in the kitchen, mud rooms with organizational centers and
laundry rooms with fold-away ironing boards among them.
4. They want green options.
What they don't want, necessarily, are bigger houses. The NAHB survey found that 58% of buyers
would rather have a smaller house with high-quality amenities than a bigger house with fewer
amenities. They also preferred a typical kitchen and living areas to an expanded kitchen at the
expense of other living spaces 63% to 37%. Nearly half of consumers said they would take a much
larger family room and do away with the living room.
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BIDS' LINK PARTNER AND CONTRIBUTOR WWW.LOWIMPACTLIVING.COM Recently Featured on HGTV's "Living With Ed" A SPECIAL OFFER TO BIDS MEMBERS: Attention Green Interior Designers and Product Providers! Low Impact Living, the leading green home site online, wants to help you find customers looking for your services. "Contact Low Impact Living and mention your affiliation with BIDS and you’ll get $75 off of an annual listing! PLEASE mention on your application that you found us through BIDS." Shayna R Prunier, LEED AP Director of Business Development and Design Low Impact Living CLICK BELOW TO JOIN LOW IMPACT LIVING'S DESIGNER DATABASE! BECOME A "GREEN" PROVIDER HERE! |
Top Tips from The Sierra Club
Go green.
Green design isn’t rocket science, but the choices and tradeoffs can be complex, so having a savvy eco-designer on
your side can be a huge help. While designers aren’t the people to turn to for recommendations on insulation or new
furnaces, they do make many decisions that affect energy efficiency, like choosing appliances, kitchen and bath
plumbing fixtures, lighting products, and window coverings. Green designers also need to be familiar with a wide range of
environmentally preferable products and materials for interior spaces, from flooring to furniture to cabinets. Moreover, a
good green designer should serve as your first line of defense against choosing furniture, paints, and other products
that might emit high levels of unhealthy VOCs into your home.
Communicate. Good design requires good two-way communication. Choose a designer who listens to you and shows a
good grasp of your goals and desires. By the same token, you need to communicate clearly about what you do and don’t
want, especially when it comes to green techniques and products that may not be standard practice.
Trust your taste. If you reluctantly agree to aqua-hued tiles that your designer insists are perfect for your bathroom,
they may grow on you. Then again, you may grow to hate them, and decide to replace them as soon as your bank
account rebounds from the initial expense. Trashing stuff because you don’t love it is no way to show your love for
Mother Earth, so don’t let yourself get talked into a style or product that you really don’t like.
Set limits. Many designers make money by taking a mark-up on products they buy for their clients, so they have a
financial incentive to entice you to accumulate more stuff, be it a larger sofa, a new dining set, or another bank of kitchen
cabinets. All this stuff takes its toll on the environment. It’s up to you to declare when enough is enough.
Buy the best. Chair legs that snap, bookshelves that sag, and cabinet doors that become unhinged mean another load
for the landfill. When choosing new items for your home, look for quality workmanship and materials. That doesn’t have
to mean a higher price tag. Many moderately priced items are well crafted, while some high-end products are shabbily
put together.
Go green.
Green design isn’t rocket science, but the choices and tradeoffs can be complex, so having a savvy eco-designer on
your side can be a huge help. While designers aren’t the people to turn to for recommendations on insulation or new
furnaces, they do make many decisions that affect energy efficiency, like choosing appliances, kitchen and bath
plumbing fixtures, lighting products, and window coverings. Green designers also need to be familiar with a wide range of
environmentally preferable products and materials for interior spaces, from flooring to furniture to cabinets. Moreover, a
good green designer should serve as your first line of defense against choosing furniture, paints, and other products
that might emit high levels of unhealthy VOCs into your home.
Communicate. Good design requires good two-way communication. Choose a designer who listens to you and shows a
good grasp of your goals and desires. By the same token, you need to communicate clearly about what you do and don’t
want, especially when it comes to green techniques and products that may not be standard practice.
Trust your taste. If you reluctantly agree to aqua-hued tiles that your designer insists are perfect for your bathroom,
they may grow on you. Then again, you may grow to hate them, and decide to replace them as soon as your bank
account rebounds from the initial expense. Trashing stuff because you don’t love it is no way to show your love for
Mother Earth, so don’t let yourself get talked into a style or product that you really don’t like.
Set limits. Many designers make money by taking a mark-up on products they buy for their clients, so they have a
financial incentive to entice you to accumulate more stuff, be it a larger sofa, a new dining set, or another bank of kitchen
cabinets. All this stuff takes its toll on the environment. It’s up to you to declare when enough is enough.
Buy the best. Chair legs that snap, bookshelves that sag, and cabinet doors that become unhinged mean another load
for the landfill. When choosing new items for your home, look for quality workmanship and materials. That doesn’t have
to mean a higher price tag. Many moderately priced items are well crafted, while some high-end products are shabbily
put together.